MTA eyes cycling path for Verrazano

The Verrazano Bridge is the missing link in bike path around the New York Harbor.

STATEN ISLAND

Hope is rising that the key remaining gap in the 50-mile pedestrian and cycling route wrapping around New York Harbor may someday be closed. In late August, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority issued a request for proposals for development of the approaches to the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge. Buried within that RFP was a request to include an assessment of the feasibility of adding bike paths on the motor-vehicles-only bridge.

The MTA is seeking consultants to study costs and offer recommendations for such a pathway, taking into account projected bicycle demand on the bridge through 2035. The path would likely use the existing ramps and then run between sets of cables on the bridge itself, where it wouldn't affect car traffic. The Harbor Ring Committee, a group formed in 2011 to advocate for a completed walking/cycling route, applauded the move. "We commend the MTA on taking this long-awaited step forward toward construction of the Verrazano pathways, which we have been advocating for since October 2012," said David Wenger, a committee member and lawyer with DLA Piper. The Harbor Ring threads its way through Manhattan, Brooklyn, Staten Island and New Jersey, but bikers and pedestrians currently have no way to cross between Brooklyn and Staten Island. The committee released its Harbor Ring map in September, despite the missing paths on the Verrazano. Judith Glave, a spokeswoman for the MTA, confirmed that the bikeway feasibility study is part of the RFP. The closing date for the RFP is Oct. 15.

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